What's in HIS Name?

Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his Son’s name, if thou canst tell?
Proverbs 30:4

"The obvious answer to these rhetorical questions must center in God, the Creator of all things. But the fascinating revelation in this Old Testament passage is that God has a Son and that both have names.
When Moses asked God His name, “God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am . . . . This is my name for ever” (Exodus 3:14-15). Later, Moses, in his song of deliverance, said: “The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name” (Exodus 15:3). The name Lord (Hebrew Jehovah or Yahweh) means,

essentially, “I am, the self-existent one.”

As far as His Son’s name is concerned, it is revealed in Scripture in many ways. In the Old Testament prophecy, “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). How remarkable that a “Son is given” who is also named the mighty God and everlasting Father!

In His incarnation, the angel commanded Joseph, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus” (“Jehovah saves”), but he also said, “They shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matthew 1:21, 23).

There are many other titles....As our eternal King, “he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords” (Revelation 19:16)." HMM

Creation Moment 7/28/2017 - Volume 1&2

"There are two books laid before us to study, to prevent our falling into error: first,
*the volume of the Scriptures, which reveal the will of God;
*then the volume of the Creatures, which express His power."
 — Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) , father of the scientific method. CEH
For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen...
Acts 22:15

Opening of the Psalms

"Psalm 1, Verse 1. "BLESSED"—see how this Book of Psalms

opens with a benediction, even as did the famous Sermon of our Lord upon the Mount! 

The seat of the scorner may be very lofty, ...let us flee from it, for it shall soon be empty, and destruction shall swallow up the man who sits therein. Mark the gradation in the first verse:

  He walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
  Nor standeth   in the way     of     sinners,
  Nor SITTETH    in the SEAT    of     SCORNFUL.

When men are living in sin they go from bad to worse. At first they merely walk in the counsel of the careless and ungodly, who forget God—the evil is rather practical than habitual—but after that, they become habituated to evil, and they stand in the way of open sinners who wilfully violate God's commandments; and if let alone, they go one step further, and become themselves pestilent teachers and tempters of others, and thus they sit in the seat of the scornful.

 And now mark his positive character. "His delight is in the law of the Lord." ...he delights, moreover,

to meditate in it,

         to read it by day,

                               and think upon it by night. 

 He takes a text and carries it with him all day long; and in the night-watches, when sleep forsakes his eyelids, he museth upon the Word of God. 

 *In the day of his prosperity he sings psalms out of the Word of God,
*and in the night of his affliction he comforts himself with promises out of the same book. 
 "The law of the Lord" is the daily bread of the true believer.

*Verse 3. "And he shall be like a tree planted"—not a wild tree, but "a tree planted," chosen, considered as property, cultivated and secured from the last terrible uprooting, for "every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up:" Matthew 15:13. 

"By the rivers of water;" so that even if one river should fail, he hath another. 
* The rivers of pardon and the rivers of grace,
*the rivers of the promise and the rivers of communion with Christ, are never-failing sources of supply.   "His leaf also shall not wither;" his faintest word shall be everlasting; his little deeds of love shall be had in remembrance.  "And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Blessed is the man who hath such a promise as this. But we must not always estimate the fulfillment of a promise by our own eye-sight."
Charles Spurgeon

IN the NEWS - Grab Your Toolkit?

"An advisory council within the Minnesota Department of Education has voted in favor of implementing a new transgender "toolkit" that instructs public and charter schools to "segregate"

students who object to sharing bathrooms and locker rooms with transgender students of the opposite biological sex.
The Minnesota Department of Education's School Safety Technical Assistance Council voted last Wednesday to give schools formal guidance through the creation of a document called "A Toolkit for Ensuring Safe and Supportive Schools for Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Students."
The purpose of the so-called toolkit is to provide formal guidance to schools and administrators on how to create inclusive environments for children who identify as members of the opposite sex.
According to a 10-page draft document, the toolkit spans topics such as school policies, name and pronoun use, bathrooms and shower use, hotel accommodations and even prom and homecoming queens and kings." CP

This their way is their folly:

Psalm 49:13

1,2?

When you disobey God--are you able to say to Him.....?

I. I didn't know it was sin
II. And I had no way of knowing it was sin

O that there were such an heart in them,

that they would fear me,

and keep all my commandments always,

that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!

Deuteronomy 5:29

IN the NEWS - Indiana Law Saves Lives

"An Indiana Planned Parenthood abortion clinic has been forced to close its doors after it lost its

admitting privileges to nearby hospitals.
According to LifeNews.com, the Planned Parenthood clinic in Merrillville, Indiana lost its only doctor who held admitting privileges with local hospitals. Indiana law requires that abortion clinics maintain connections with local hospitals in case of a patient emergency.
After the doctor resigned from the Planned Parenthood clinic, the Indiana Department of Health sent a letter to the facility notifying them that, until they are able to find a new doctor who has hospital admittance privileges, they are prohibited from performing abortions.
It is not known why the doctor quit working at the clinic.
Indiana Right to Life applauded the clinic’s closure. “We’re pleased to see Indiana’s admitting privilege law being followed and enforced,” stated Mike Fichter, President and CEO of Indiana Right to Life. “Admitting privilege laws are health and safety measures. In case of an emergency, admitting privileges ensure a woman is aided in the most expedient manner possible. Admitting privileges can make a life or death difference when minutes matter.” LSN
Suffer the little children to come unto me,
and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
Mark 10:14

Creation Moment 7/27/2017 - Evolutionist Dawkins in the News

"Richard Dawkins, who has devoted years of his long career to

shutting down free speech on intelligent design and to insulating Darwinism from dissent, has been booted from a talk he was scheduled to give for radio station KPFA in (where else?) Berkeley. The snowflakes apparently can’t bring themselves to give Dawkins a platform, due to his “tweets and other comments on Islam.”
You’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh. Richard Dawkins has been Expelled for challenging orthodoxy, in this case the orthodoxy that Islam is above critique." EN&V
But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them;
Psalm 59:8

UNFOLDING: The Woman, Seed & Remnant

The WOMAN

God's people, symbolized by the 12 stars (12 tribes of Israel) clothed in His robe of righteousness, shining out to the world like the moon reflects the sunlight to the earth

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven;

a woman clothed with the sun,

and the moon under her feet,

and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

Revelation 12:1

 

The SEED

The seed of the woman, God's people down through history, martyred for the faith. Notice these weren't mentioned as "commandment keepers", for they were partial commandment keepers, held accountable for the light they knew at the time

And the dragon was wroth with the woman,

and went to make war with the remnant of her seed,

Revelation 12:17

The REMNANT of her SEED

The remnant at the end are identified as keeping His "commandments", not some of them

And the dragon was wroth with the woman,

and went to make war with the remnant of her seed,

which keep the commandments of God,

and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 12:17

God's 2 Views of the Dead

the SAINTS

Precious in the sight of the LORD

is the death of his saints.

Psalm 116:15

the WICKED

 As I live, saith the Lord GOD,

 I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked;

Ezekiel 33:11

Papal Notes - Danneels Controversy

Cardinal Danneels in Rainbow vestments

Danneels
"Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the emeritus archbishop of Brussels, was a personal appointment by Pope Francis to the Synods of Bishops on the family. In addition to wearing rainbow liturgical vestments and being caught on tape concealing sexual abuse, Danneels said in 2013 of the passage of gay “marriage”: “I think it’s a positive development that states are free to open up civil marriage for gays if they want.” LN

Would Peter, whom the Pope claims to hold title to his "authority" via apostolic succession, have appointed this man to any post within Christendom? Just asking......

They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight.

They are a disgrace and a stain among you.

2 Peter 2:13 NLT

IN the NEWS - What's the Difference?

What is the difference between "Republican" governor Christie & a "Democrat" because I can't see a difference....

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,

God gave them over to a reprobate mind,

to do those things which are not convenient;

Romans 1:28

"New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed into law a bill that requires the commissioner of education to develop guidelines 

When it comes to politics--what's the difference

between this Republican & Democrat?

I'm not seeing any...WHY do we even have elections anymore?

regarding transgender students, including allowing them to use restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity, rather than biological gender.
Under the legislation, S3067/A4652, the guidelines would also require teachers to use the name and pronoun that correspond to the student's gender identity, allow transgender students to dress according to their gender identity, and participate in their preferred gender-segregated school activities." CP

Creation Moment 7/26/2017 - "Raw Emotion"

For we know that the whole creation groaneth

and travaileth in pain together until now.

Romans 8:22

 

"Raw Emotion - certainly, not by chance"

Darwin, Then & Now FB

 

--Peace--

"In the heart of Christ,

where reigned perfect harmony with God,

there was perfect peace.

 

He was never elated by applause,
nor dejected by censure or disappointment. 

 But many who profess to be His followers have an anxious,

 troubled heart,

because they are afraid to trust themselves with God.

 

They do not make a complete surrender to Him;
for they shrink from the consequences that such
a surrender may involve.
Unless they do make this surrender,
they cannot find peace.

It is the love of self that brings unrest.

Trust in God brings holier qualities of mind,
so that in patience we may possess our souls."
Desire of Ages p.330 E.G.W.
For he is our peace,...
Ephesians 2:14

IN the NEWS - "non-negotiable"?

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:

Galatians 1:6

"The head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences has again inferred that denial of the controversial concept of manmade climate change equates to flat earth mentality.
"From the scientific point of view, the sentence that the earth is warmed by human activity is as true as the sentence: The earth is round!” said Archbishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo.

The archbishop has been a consistent and zealous promoter of manmade climate change as a non-negotiable Church issue.

Climate change ideology continues to be contested as a ploy perpetrated with manipulated data by the left to enact environmental regulations and taxes.

The interview conducted in German contained the headline: “Vatican: ‘Climate change is a fact,’” and centered on reception of Pope Francis’ eco-encyclical Laudato Si’ two years after its release.

Archbishop Sorondo went on in the interview to say that human-affected climate change was considered science. He added that the pope not only has the right but also the duty to rely on science in addition to doctrine and philosophy in seeking out truth.
If the pope expresses himself on such a subject, then this was not arbitrary, he said, as the pope’s words are not restricted to the area of ​​"doctrine of faith and morals." The pope makes use of the truths of science or philosophy to not only explain to man how to get to heaven, said the archbishop, but also what he must do on earth. 

Archbishop Sorondo is a close adviser to Pope Francis and the Chancellor of both the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. He has repeatedly welcomed pro-abortion and population control advocates to the Vatican for conferences under the pretext of the climate issue." LifeSite

His SHADOW

Keep me as the apple of the eye,

hide me under the shadow of thy wings.

Psalm 17:8

"There are twelve references in the Bible to God's "shadow," understood as a type of His invisible, but very real, guiding presence.

The Lord's presence is like "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land," according to Isaiah 32:2. The same prophet quoted God as saying that "I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand" even as He formed the heavens and the earth, while hiding us "in the shadow of His hand" (Isaiah 51:16; 49:2).

Then there is the wonderful promise of Psalm 91:1: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." He can also be "a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall," bringing down "the heat with the shadow of a cloud" Isaiah 25:4-5. S

Similarly, He is "a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain" (Isaiah 4:6).

The last reference speaks of "the anointed of the Lord" (that is, of the Messiah, Jesus Christ), assuring God's people that; "Under His shadow we shall live among the heathen" (Lamentations 4:20). Hidden under the shadow of God is indeed a good and safe place to be in times like these." HMM

Creation Moment 7/25/2017 - "bestial origin" vs. "image of God"

"The Bible describes humans as being created in the image of God—the pinnacle of His creation. In contrast, those who embrace the presupposition of naturalistic origins have put much effort and even monkey business into a propaganda crusade to claim a bestial origin for man.

 
The idea that humans evolved from an ape-like creature was first widely promoted by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in the early 1800s and later by Charles Darwin in his 1871 book The Descent of Man—published 12 years after his acclaimed evolutionary treatise On the Origin of Species. Thomas Huxley, a friend of Darwin, also did much to popularize this idea. Since then, the secular scientific community has promulgated the still-hypothetical idea of human evolution as an established fact.

After the 150-plus years since Darwin’s famous publication, we still have no fossil evidence demonstrating human evolution. Darwin believed such fossils would eventually be found, but that has simply not been the case. The following quotes from evolutionists themselves accurately sum up the current state of affairs regarding the fossil record and its wholesale lack of support for human evolution.

The evolutionary events that led to the origin of the Homo lineage are an enduring puzzle in paleoanthropology, chiefly because the fossil record from between 3 million and 2 million years ago is frustratingly sparse, especially in eastern Africa.

But with so little evidence to go on, the origin of our genus has remained as mysterious as ever.

The origin of our own genus remains frustratingly unclear."

ICR
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:27

Chinese Dynasties

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead;
so that they are without excuse.
Romans 1:20

"I was lecturing on the Biblical and scientific evidence for recent creation to a university audience in Hong Kong, China, when a

scholar raised the objection: "The Chinese have a documented history going back many thousands of years, much earlier than your dates for creation and the Flood. We have known dynasties and named rulers. The Bible must be wrong."

The solution lies in an examination of the earliest Chinese dynasties. Actually, precisely documented dynasties go back only to about 2000 B.C.

*The first true dynasty was founded about 4000 years ago by a leader remembered for having "sweetened the waters," making the land habitable after wide-spread flooding.

*The ten listed dynasties before that, however, were of a different sort, with very long lives and questionable details attributed to them. From a Biblical viewpoint, as did all of humanity, the Chinese descended from Adam, then Noah through the Tower of Babel incident. The amazing "Table of Nations" in Genesis 10, which chronicles the language groups and their destinations, mentions the "Sinite people" in verse 17, which probably became the Asian groups.

The Asian people descended from language groups migrating away

from the Tower of Babel after God confounded their languages. In all likelihood,
*the well-documented dynasties date to that event,
*while the prior ones were faded memories of pre-Flood patriarchs, preserved as legends.

Doesn't this "Back to Genesis" history have the ring of truth about it? Biblical chronologies place the Babel incident at 4200 or so years ago. Many of the expelled groups took with them

technological knowledge which they put to use in their new homelands. History documents the fact that several major cultures sprang into existence seemingly from nowhere at about the same time—the Egyptians, the Sumerians, the Phoenicians, the Indians, as well as the Chinese—and each possessed a curious mixture of truth and pagan thought, as would be expected from peoples only briefly separated from Noah and his teachings as well as the star worshipping/pyramid building heresy of Nimrod at Babel.

Interestingly, each group mentioned above lists 10 patriarchs in their pre-history, just as does Genesis. Individual leaders would guide their growing language groups to a new land, bringing both

technology and a history with them. Each had personal knowledge of the Flood and pre-Flood days, having learned from Noah, his sons, or their early descendants. The Asian leader evidently gained prominence when he engineered the draining of swampy land left saturated by leftover flood waters. His following dynasty commenced about the time of Abraham, about 2000 B.C., and the memories of long-lived patriarchs of pre-Flood days became early dynasties.

Details in ancient history are necessarily scarce, and proposed origins must be considered tentative. But the fact is, Biblical history is correct." ICR

IN the NEWS - Jail Time?

Again, the intolerant, secular Left is at it......Picture the Scene of these kinds of Politicians (I use the word "politicians" in the most negative connotation of the word) joining forces with "Christians" one day who think they are doing God's will when implementing the Mark of the beast. (These secular Leftists are big on the Green Religion-for example, remember when Obama sent his att. gen. after so-called "Climate Change Deniers", or when Julian Castro, as mayor of San Antonio, passed a bill that gives you a ticket if someone is offended by what you say about LGBT issues, or the former mayor of Houston who issued a subpoena for clergy sermon notes to see if they preached against gay marriage, or when former V.P. Al Gore called for the government to prosecute those who don't believe in man made global warming, or the professor who called for the death penalty for "climate change deniers"....all documented on this blog.....Put "Christians" & these secular Leftists together behind a cause considered saving the planet from peril ("Christians" to appease an angry Father God & Secular Leftists to appease an angry mother earth) and you will have persecution like we haven't seen on a global scale....

Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses,

so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds,..

2 Timothy 3:8

"California is on its way to passing a new law that makes it illegal to call transgender senior citizens a pronoun they don't like. For example, if an elderly person who was born male and lives in a long-term care facility wishes to be called "her" or "she," the workers there had better do it or face the

consequences. The proposed law would even apply to Christian facilities.
SB 219, titled the "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Long-Term Care Facility Resident's Bill of Rights," states, "It shall be unlawful for a long-term care facility or facility staff to. ... willfully and repeatedly fail to use a resident's preferred name or pronouns after being clearly informed of the preferred name or pronouns."  It imposes fines and jail time on any long-term care employee who refuses to use transgender pronouns. Fines for repeat offenders could be as high as $1,000 and a jail term of up to a year.
The bill will also mandate bathrooms, and rooming situations be designated by gender identity and not biological sex. There are no exemptions for long-term care facilities run by religious institutions who integrate their beliefs about gender into their policies and practices.
Critics of the law fought against it. California Family Council's Greg Burt testified before the California Assembly Judiciary Committee, saying, "How can you believe in free speech, but think the government can compel people to use certain pronouns when talking to others?" He added, "Compelled speech is not free speech. Can the government compel a newspaper to use certain pronouns that aren't even in the dictionary? Of course not, or is that coming next?"
"Those proposing this bill are saying, 'If you disagree with me about my view of gender, you are discriminating against me,'" Burt continued. "This is not tolerance. This is not love. This is not mutual respect. True tolerance tolerates people with different views. We need to treat each other with respect, but respect is a two-way street. It is not respectful to threaten people with punishment for having sincerely held beliefs that differ from your own."

   Despite Burt's objections, the measure, which is sponsored by the group Equality California and authored by San Francisco Senator Scott Wiener, sailed through committee without even one vote against it." CBN

Proportional Square Root of our work

"The value of our work is in proportion to the impartation of the Holy Spirit."

Desire of Ages p.331 E.G.W.

..... how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
Luke 11:13

Book Review: Bones of Contention

(short) Book Review: a book that may be of some interest... 
(Review by CMI)

Bones of Contention

by Marvin Lubenow

Publisher: Baker Books Pages: 400

Find out what evolutionists don’t tell you about human fossils. The author gives you the results of his 35 years of fossil research, and shows without doubt that so-called human evolution is a myth. Easy to read and well documented.


....and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
1 Peter 3 :15

Creation Moment 7/24/2017 - Child's Hardware / Software

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:

Psalm 139:14

"It’s perhaps the most obvious distinctive trait of humans. Where did language come from, with all its diversity?

Children come equipped with the hardware and software to pick up a language, even though it is not instinctive (otherwise, all children would speak the same language). A new study from the University of Washington Institute of Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS), published on Medical Xpress, found that toddlers

can even pick up two languages easily.

When exposed to a second language like English for just an hour a day by a caretaker speaking ‘parentese’ (the characteristic style of speaking parents use with their babies), the children readily gained “an average of 74 English words or phrases per child, per hour” compared to 13 words or phrases in the control group. Moreover, the children retained the ability to speak and understand these words 18 weeks later.

“Science indicates that babies’ brains are the best learning machines ever created, and that infants’ learning is time-sensitive. Their brains will never be better at learning a second language than they are between 0 and 3 years of age,” said co-author Patricia Kuhl, co-director of I-LABS and a UW professor of speech and hearing sciences.

The Bible gives an answer that fits the data. Human beings—and humans alone—were created in the image of God, who is the Logos, the Word, the communicator. The Creator’s words have meaning. They are not just signals like bird calls or ape hoots. The first human pair had a God-given language from the beginning, with which they could communicate with their Maker. That was not lost after Adam and Eve sinned; we find God speaking to Cain, Noah, and Abraham. But when human population size grew after the Flood, they disobeyed the command to disperse and multiply, and instead wanted to form one idolatrous civilization in defiance of the one true God. Knowing it would lead to a totalitarian one-world government in rebellion, the Triune God (notice pronoun “Let Us“) mercifully confused their languages at Babel, forcing them to separate and form separate tribes. In a sin-cursed world, we can deduce this was an act of mercy, creating tension between nations that could offset the capacity for one-world government. Now in our time, however, advances in technology are making the threat of global governance a real and present danger. From the Babel experience, we can predict that another judgment is coming. Fortunately, the Bible has told us about it." CEH

New Life Sermon SERIES by Randy Skeete

New Life Sermon SERIES

(by Randy Skeete)

Therefore if any man be in Christ,

he is a new creature:

old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

2 Corinthians 5:17

 

Why Are You Troubled

https://www.youtube.com/embed/fM1nQzQD4SM?list=PLL8uu4sfUU-m199xmEodYLagzp0GUZl1J

Deeper and Higher

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xSM6u3kKOuM?list=PLL8uu4sfUU-l6beGZiCYvOBHXLP63_Wey

Two Wars One Enemy

https://www.youtube.com/embed/RRrMMltsTLg?list=PLL8uu4sfUU-mC1dhThjrHEx0mXCGZA43V

God's Inner Circle

https://www.youtube.com/embed/7ez-RssIXyM?list=PLL8uu4sfUU-mciwREuA_2XUkNmo-0pQNf

Give In and Win

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xmGn7gXsukY?list=PLL8uu4sfUU-nbPG63dwOL0Gur5edBRog

Moment By Moment

https://www.youtube.com/embed/qS0GvnhQwjg?list=PLL8uu4sfUU-mbanaaLQzfTo7E1OVabEwy

In His Image

https://www.youtube.com/embed/fYNfOoNRBlc?list=PLL8uu4sfUU-liRIm6oTEISEwVJZZq8ino

Good Fences Make Good Neighbor's

https://www.youtube.com/embed/TZORToIx7lo?list=PLL8uu4sfUU-nPoJWCbkIySauZhYUpCw0d

Power of Value

https://www.youtube.com/embed/pgtPVvQ3_Nc?list=PLL8uu4sfUU-ns2FELquUUHpnO2LYsezvS

Living In Truth

https://www.youtube.com/embed/JIxbjF0yGwo?list=PLL8uu4sfUU-njyiUQPUpnxAFmK29GllDG

Look Unto Me

https://www.youtube.com/embed/C8rxY3LQOrU?list=PLL8uu4sfUU-k_yML8yg3AFFzLHJYrjGk4

A Family Affair

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ItzjFKPA7w0?list=PLL8uu4sfUU-lXW3d-c2VNMc64VNHE9qFn

A Prescription for Life

https://www.youtube.com/embed/MtBiqANDxSo?list=PLL8uu4sfUU-kPlxo0w6GNn3k-9r_GACER

Let There Be Light

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hp1v8-d5EVI?list=PLL8uu4sfUU-niXcX-bNiNBQnepA2-GKKi

From The Heart

https://www.youtube.com/embed/uopOwS0wblc?list=PLL8uu4sfUU-mUAP-sFrdU-PZil0_qxzeJ

Papal Notes - Sea Sunday & Mary

"“I entrust sailors, fishermen, and all those in

difficulty on the seas faraway from home, to the motherly protection of Mary, Star of the Sea, says Pope Francis in a “Tweet” posted on his account @Pontifex_en, this Sunday July 9, 2017, Sea Sunday.
On this occasion, the Vatican published a Message of the Dicastery for the Integral Human Development Service, signed by its Prefect, Cardinal Peter Turkson.
The Message is addressed to chaplains, volunteers, friends and supporters of the Apostleship of the Sea, on the occasion of this annual Sea Sunday.
It stresses the importance of protecting the rights of those working at sea, as expressed in the Maritime Labor Convention of 2006.

The Message also announces the 24th World Congress of the Apostleship of the Sea, which will be devoted to fishing and fisheries, and will be held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in October 2017."
Zenit

As for me, I will call upon God: Psalm 55:16

Those Devices

"There is nothing that the great deceiver fears so much

as that we shall become acquainted with his devices."

Great Controversy p.516 E.G.W.

 

Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea!

for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath,

because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Revelation 12:12

 

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us:

for we are not ignorant of his devices.

2 Corinthians 2:11

Creation Moment 7/23/2017 - LCA: Adam or Chimps?

So God created man in his own image,...
Genesis 1:27

"Here is a long, substantive, and interesting article from the BBC — “We still have not found the missing link between us and apes.” It is interesting for two reasons.

1. It admits that we haven’t found anything that resembles the last common ancestor (LCA) between humans and apes, what author Colin Barras calls the “missing link.”
2. It admits that it’s hard to even agree on what the LCA might have looked like.

What it doesn’t do is admit the even bigger problem: that we don’t even have transitional forms

between Australopithecus and Homo. This is a major omission.
That having been said, Barras raises a lot of interesting issues relevant to problem above. Scientists can’t agree on what the LCA looked like because humans share different similarities with different primates. It’s hard to decide which primate we’re most closely related to. This shows that the phylogenetic tree of primates isn’t as clear-cut as we’re often told — humans share similarities and differences with many primates in a pattern that doesn’t makes a nice, clear-cut tree.

The article does a good job of discussing this. It states, for example:

Primates in general (particularly monkeys) are often relatively small-bodied, and they scamper around in forest canopies by running along branches. But apes are unusual primates. Most have big bodies with extraordinarily long arms. They often get around by swinging below branches rather than running along the top of them – a form of locomotion called “brachiation”.
According to many of these early researchers, the LCA was a large-bodied, long-armed, brachiating ape.
By the late 1960s, researchers were fleshing out the LCA even further. An anthropologist called Sherwood Washburn pointed out that chimpanzees, and particularly gorillas, actually spend significant amounts of time moving around on all fours on the forest floor.
Both apes use their arms in an idiosyncratic way when they walk: they flex their fingers so that their weight bears down on the knuckles. To Washburn it made sense that the LCA “knuckle-walked” too. The behavior could even be seen as a stepping-stone on the way to walking upright on two legs, he wrote.
But it would be wrong to think that everyone was on board with these ideas of a brachiating, knuckle-walking, chimp-like LCA. In fact, almost from the moment that Huxley first put pen to paper, a minority of scientists were arguing that the earliest human ancestors — and the LCA — was decidedly not chimp-like.
For instance, just a decade after Huxley’s book, biologist St George Mivart argued that humans shared many features in common with monkeys or even lemurs. Meanwhile, from 1918 onwards an anatomist called Frederic Wood Jones argued that humans had a lot more in common with tarsiers than with chimpanzees or gorillas.
… [H]uman arms, hands, legs and feet are not as highly specialized as we might assume.
“In these characters man finds his counterparts not in anthropoid apes [gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans] but in animals that are clearly regarded… as more primitive,” wrote [anatomist William] Straus.
What Straus and a few others were really getting at is that humans show none of the specialized features that allow other apes to swing through the trees. It made sense to at least consider the possibility that humans split apart from other primates before the apes evolved brachiation, or knuckle-walking for that matter. Straus could not say exactly which species should be recognized as our sister. But the LCA could well have been a relatively small-bodied primate that ran along branches rather than swinging beneath them.
This disagreement continued for several more decades, says Nathan Young at the University of California in San Francisco. In fact, even into the 1980s it was not clear from anatomical features alone exactly where humans slotted into the primate evolutionary tree.

So what made them finally ditch the idea that humans are most closely related to “lower” primates in favor of believing that humanity’s closest relative is the chimp? As the article explains, human DNA turned out to be most similar to chimp DNA. So the drift of opinion turned to chimps as our closest cousin.
The kicker, however, is this: We’re constantly told that both our genes and our morphology are very similar to chimps. But as this article concedes, some major aspects of our morphology are more like other primates than they are like chimps. So our morphology isn’t necessarily entirely chimp-like.
Thus, we get this really interesting passage in the article:

The story should end there, but it does not. Surprisingly, the last 15 years have actually

seen popular opinion begin to swing away from the idea of a chimp-like LCA, and towards a model closer to that argued by people like Straus in the 1940s.
There are several factors that explain the recent rethink. A more thorough understanding of chimp and gorilla anatomy helped.
There had been murmurings for some time that gorillas and chimpanzees (and bonobos) might not knuckle-walk in quite the same way. In 1999, Mike Dainton and Gabriele Macho at the University of Liverpool, UK, looked at the idea more formally. From subtle differences in the way gorilla and chimpanzee wrist bones change as the apes grow from juveniles to adults, Dainton and Macho concluded that the two may have evolved knuckle-walking independently.
Over the following decade, other researchers reported similar findings. By 2009, Tracy Kivell — now at the University of Kent, UK — and Daniel Schmitt at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, were arguing that humans did not evolve from a knuckle-walking LCA.

Strikingly, the article even notes that molecular biologists are willing to question whether the LCA links humans most closely to chimps:

 But the search for those crucial fossils is no longer quite as straightforward as it once seemed. In the last five years, some geneticists have begun to question whether the molecular clocks they use to estimate when the LCA lived are being read correctly."

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